More than 160 Egyptian personnel arrived in Darfur today as part of a large battalion that will boost the strength of the joint United Nations-African Union force deployed earlier this year in an attempt to quell the fighting and humanitarian suffering in the strife-torn Sudanese region.

CAIRO (AFP) - A group of 19 foreign tourists and Egyptians kidnapped at gunpoint by bandits while on a desert safari in a remote corner of southwestern Egypt have been freed, Egypt's foreign minister said on Monday.

RIyadh, Saudi Arabia -
The Saudi king has made an impassioned plea for dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews -- the first such proposal from a nation with no diplomatic ties to Israel and a ban on non-Muslim religious services and symbols.

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